“School food service directors are constantly stretching every dollar to provide nutrituous, affordable meals to their students.”

But those healthy meals come at a price.

Programs to feed children cost $30 billion in tax dollars each year.

The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act expired in 2010, but Congress has continued to fudn the federal school meal programs one year at a time. And this year is no different.

Congress must decide which programs should stay on the menu — including the program that reimburses schools for serving milk to children who don’t have access to the school meal programs.

According to Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Stabenow, there are over 12 million children in the U.S. who do not have neough to eat. In a hearing of the Committee on Agriculture, Nurtrition and Forestry, Stabenow said:

“This is a crisis of both child health and child hunger. We need to address this crisis by improving access to nutritious food, so our kids get healthier – not hungrier. Our children need healthy lunch options – and they also need wholesome breakfasts and after-school snacks. And we know hunger doesn’t take a break when school is out for the summer. Whether it’s a summer meals program at the YMCA to help prevent the summer learning slide, or a “Veggie Van” driving out to a rural community to ensure children have healthy meals in July – we need to do better.”

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